WARWICKSHIRE face Worcestershire before an expected full house at Edgbaston tonight knowing they have no more margin for error in their bid to qualify for the Twenty20 quarter-finals.

A washout in Cardiff on Wednesday, allied to two earlier defeats, means the Bears almost certainly must win their last three games to avoid failing to qualify from the group stage for the first time.

Warwickshire's poor displays in their first two home games have left them under pressure. Tonight, in front of a capacity 17,000 crowd, they must rise to it.

And all-rounder Dougie Brown knows they must also break the jinx that old rivals Worcestershire have on them in recent one-day clashes, not least last season's Twenty20 - two thrilling victories each by just one run.

"Both those games were real crackers and it was agonising to lose by that margin," said Brown. "Although, to be fair, Worcestershire played better cricket in both. We just got back into them at the end by the skin of our teeth.

"It would be great to put the record straight tonight. And we need to - after Wednesday's washout we need to win three out of three.

"If you play badly at the start of the competition, as we did, then you are always one behind the eight-ball. Then if the weather intervenes, as it did in Cardiff, it makes it doubly difficult."

Warwickshire can only hope Edgbaston evades the storms tonight.

The deluge in Cardiff was much more damaging to them than Gla-morgan, who already have points on the board. Not that every effort wasn't made to craft a result at Sophia Gardens. It was interesting to see the teams ready to start a six-over thrash at 9.15pm on a saturated field on which puddles were still being swept away when the terminal downpour arrived at 9pm.

They were quite prepared to go out and splash around. That might be recalled with irony by Warwick-shire's supporters next time a championship match is delayed for hours due to a "dangerous" outfield (ie. there was a light shower over Birmingham three weeks last Tuesday).